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Right now, any kind of news leaks or rumors are almost 100% coming from agents. The crew of local sportswriters in Buffalo have all said numerous times that this regime has everything on lockdown and aren't putting any info out there. If they do, it's likely misinformation anyway. Bills are obviously gonna do their homework on the entire QB group but they're the only ones who know who their top target is.

Peez no

Mayfield is starting to grow on me a little bit. He checks some of the boxes Team McBeane like, aside from prototypical size and consistently making plays from the pocket. (I'm not saying he doesn't make plays from the pocket just saying that he's got some of that Russell Wilson/Tyrod Taylor vibe where he'll run around for a bit and then make a throw. Nothing wrong with that if you're making the plays but teams obviously wanna see steady plays being made from the pocket.) I don't care what they do (well, I do) just do what they gotta do to get whoever they think is gonna be their guy for the next 10 years.

Ah yes, me as well. Very intriguing. It's the Indiana Ponies team that drafts at 3, right? Didn't someone say that team is going to trade their QB to the Bills? What's his name.... Andy... Anthony... Andre Fortune, right?

This board did vote Sal as their favorite local sportswriter. I tweeted that to him a while back, he was unaware (of the contest) but he knew of TBD and was stoked to hear that we voted him as the top guy. He's a good, fair writer/reporter. This article accurately sums up how Bills fans felt about Tyrod during his time here. IMO, Tyrod is a consummate professional. Bills weren't all that good to him last season and he was still first in/last out. He most certainly has the work ethic to succeed in the most ideal circumstances (i.e. a super talented team around him) which isn't Cleveland but I'll still check in on how he does this season from time to time.

There's been speculation picking up on Bradford to Buffalo. More than a few media dweebs have been floating that around.

Well, I certainly hope no players, rookies included, are on the roaster... because that sounds painful... uncomfortable at the least. On the one hand, yes, the execs say all the time that they are always evaluating the roster, always listening to offers, always evaluating those offers, etc. etc. But there are most certainly players on this roster labeled "Safe" or "That Dude Ain't Goin' Nowhere." Logically thinking, Dion Dawkins, being the third ever draft choice by McDermott, is on that list. He performed pretty well last year in place of Glenn, his contract is much more affordable than Glenn's and he's younger. That's not to knock Cordy, I like that guy, I think he's a strong, solid, good all-around player. Doesn't do anything spectacular, but doesn't do anything terribly either. But when you compare the two players, knowing how Beane wants to clear as much cap space as he can, you can easily connect the dots and say that Glenn is a guy they wouldn't hesitate to part ways with if the right deal comes along. The issue is his contract. Again, he's a good player, but he's being paid like a Pro Bowler and now with the foot injuries he's had, his value is down. We could very well see a Sammy-type situation with Cordy. He spends the off-season getting healthy, goes into camp labeled as the #1 LT, they showcase him in some pre-season games and then swing a deal to a team in need of a left tackle and then tell Dawkins he's the guy at LT.

Didn't he also have a really hard time grasping an NFL playbook? I could be misremembering but I thought I'd read that his football IQ wasn't great but teams figured they could dumb it down for him.

McBeane has made it clear that they plan to build this team through the draft, so they're not going to trade away one of their very first draft picks. Especially not a guy they jumped up in the second round to get. Also... c'mon man.

Don't forget Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. 2011 & 2013 drafted QBs were obviously legends. One difference with Manuel and Allen is that Allen looks to throw it and try to make a play that way as opposed to EJ who will take off running at the first sign of trouble. And that's mainly because the person he trusts on the field the most is himself, which is an odd contradiction for him. He won't trust himself to push the ball through tight windows but when the play breaks down and something has to happen he'll go, "I gotta run, forget throwing or even looking down field." I do, however, put some of the running mentality EJ has/had on Marrone and Hackett. Those dudes have literally said they wouldn't throw the ball if they didn't have to. And during EJ's rookie year, he was consistently coached to make one or two half-field reads and instantly take off running if the receive wasn't open.

Ah, he has clearly changed it since the last time I saw, but all through the season it was him in a Bills uni. Well, either way, good luck to the guy.

Not that it means much but a few weeks back someone tweeted something at him like, "Yo, come back to Buffalo and help us win this AFC East!" And he responded with, "You never know, this is a crazy business." His Twitter avatar is him in a Bills uniform. Again, doesn't mean much. But it could signify that if the Bills did call, he'd listen. During the season he sounded like he turned the corner in the maturity department a little bit. But on the other hand, if I'm him and a team trades up to get me, and I go out in my first game and get used as a decoy and don't have any targets, I'm probably saying something too. I'd be confused as hell. "This team traded an extra first round pick to draft me, and now they want me to just take coverage off the other receivers? Eff that, I want the ball." He's a receiver, they all want the ball. I really didn't have an issue when he spoke out about needing more targets. Hearing about him being bummed that his stats were low even in a victory is just immaturity and it seems to be something he's gotten over. I think the early injuries he suffered as a rookie have stuck in his head since then and he hasn't been able to fully shake it and play fast and loose like he should. Just my assumption. He'll get paid somewhere. 99.4% chance it will not be in Buffalo.

The skills are there, just need to be refined. That's one reason I can see the Bills going for him. They can mold him into their vision of a franchise QB. Obviously his arm stands out, as does his completion percentage (for the wrong reasons) but he really had no one decent to throw to plus the guys he had thrown to dropped a lot of passes. He does bail on clean pockets a little too much from what I've seen. He's been a really intriguing prospect to evaluate. I think a lot of people tend to judge him on what they've seen so far, but remember that pro scouts are judging on the potential he shows. They see things that can be corrected and from everything I've read he sounds like a smart, coachable kid. This is why he's going to go pretty early.

Whaley probably should've topped out as a Pro Personnel Director or something similar. He is a good scout. He's not a good team builder. He probably would've been fine as a guy who was second or third in command to the GM. From what I can recall, he was retained through the draft because by the time they canned Rex and brought on McDermott, Whaley and his staff had already done all the heavy lifting to gear up for the draft and free agency. I'm totally speculating here but I wouldn't doubt that McDermott was informed upon his hiring that Whaley would be let go, but I think they may have given McDermott the choice of, "Do you want us to move on from him now or after the draft?" To bring in a new GM and personnel staff at that point would have been a huge undertaking and probably would've left them quite unprepared for FA and the draft. So they probably agreed that, let's leave Doug and his staff to finish their work but we're giving Sean the final say on everything right now. And that was probably a tough thing for Whaley, being told to finish his work for the draft but then as soon as the draft is done, so are you. He was professional about it and did what he could to help and then they said adios. I think he'll wind up in the league again at some point but again, as a director or other executive, not a GM.

Kenny Davis

They made him some offers after 2016 but he's grossly overvaluing himself and he's put some not so good things on film for coaches to see. Back half of 2016 the dude dialed it way down and played for self preservation. He wasn't flying all over the field like he was to start the season and by the end of the year he felt like an afterthought. Decent player. Is he in the same tier as Kuechly, Wagner or Ogletree... not even close.

K.

Even without Davis signing here I'm positive they weren't going corner in the first this year. If Davis had passed I'm sure they would have continued trying to bring back Gaines or would have gone after a few players in free agency.

Great pickup for them. Gaines will sign elsewhere but Davis is probably an upgrade, right? I'm sure McDermott is excited to have that type of experience in his secondary. White, Davis, Hyde, Poyer...not trying to go full homer but that's easily a top seven group. It's been said he's 100% healthy. His health was the main reason behind his fallout with Indy. He elected to have surgery on his groin while Indy wanted him to play through it all season.

Both Vic and Gabriel, like 'em or not, are connected and have sources. However, they have no way to verify what's the real deal and what's BS. Given that Team McBeane have made it clear that they prefer to build this team through the draft, I'm inclined to agree with these two. Unless some type of way too good to pass up kinda deal comes at them, I don't expect a massive jump up. If they have their eye on a guy who happens to slide down past the top 10 or 15, then I think it becomes a bit more likely that they'd move up. If they do make a huge jump up, you know they're gonna get ripped for it somewhere. Maybe by Vic himself. Because we know someone out there will take a look at all the players Beane traded away to acquire their draft capital and convey it in a way that would say, "Bills give up two first rounders, a second and a fourth, and also lost all the players they traded to get those picks and any players they got in return (Gaines, Matthews) didn't re-sign! So, really, Buffalo gave up four picks plus Sammy Watkins, Ron Darby, Jordan Matthews and EJ Gaines. What a terrible, awful, horrible, wretched, no good trade! The Bills should be banned from the league for doing this." *Two seasons later, the player Buffalo traded up for leads them to a championship.* Media: (probably some bums like Schlop and the Bullfrog) "Still the worst draft day trade in the history of the universe- nay, the multiverse! Even in a world of infinite universes and timelines the Bills still sh*t the bed with this trade! Awful! Fire everyone!" Or something like that. Anywho, it's a solid draft for a lot of positions and they have a lot of spots to fill. I can't see them making all those trades last season and restructuring the team in their vision just to give up half of them for one guy.

He's had issues dating back to his teenage years. I read the reports and the texts when the investigation was happening several years ago and to me, he came off like a kid that was trying to fit in. He certainly didn't just sit back and become a target that those guys kept going after, he threw in his fair share of zingers. And that's all it was meant to be, guys giving each other sh*t in an alpha-male environment. Everyone deals with some kind of crap in life, whether it's some kind of addiction, a mental or physical health issue, incurable Bills fan syndrome, etc. The first step is always the hardest but there's no way he can say he hasn't been afforded plenty of opportunities to get help and work on his issues. He grew up in an affluent family with two Harvard graduates for parents. His father is a professor of criminal justice administration at Cal State and his mother is a corporate lawyer for Toyota. While he may have had all the material wants/needs while growing up, he felt like an outsider because he isn't your average, everyday middle-class American. I don't know if he was made to feel that way by other kids in school or if he just felt that way naturally. Either way, again, we all deal with our crap and at a certain point you figure out a way to work on it and manage it or you give in and let it consume you. I hope he can turn it around and realize his current train of thought will do no one any good, including him.

Usually someone would point out that Poe is better suited for NT in a 3-4 but he actually played over 70% of the snaps for Atlanta last year and they run a 4-3. Stats-wise he had his best year since 2013. But the reasons the Chiefs let him go in 2016 were because his asking price was quite high plus he's had a consistent back injury to deal with for a few years now. I don't know if he's an FA this season or not but I can't see McBeane viewing and valuing him as anything more than a rotational DL.

It being a USA Today article very likely means it could be a "BillsWire" piece. Those are generally written by amateur bloggers or just fans who are trying to get into sportswriting.

Gotta admire his heart but after what happened I don't think anyone would blame him if he decided to hang it up. I would if I were him. Even if he does make a full recovery I would still assume that no team physicians would clear him. He may fall into the same situation as Aaron Williams. He may fully recover and get himself in amazing shape and feel as though he can play but won't find a team that'll clear him.

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.